Marimite 4th 02: To Watch or Not To Watch

That's the question. Sei and Youko's cameo in this episode made me realize just how much I miss the original Rosas and how the show just doesn't feel the same without them. So after this episode, I don't know if I'm going to continue watching Marimite 4th. It would all depend on how awesome Sachiko is going to be in the coming episodes, because next to Sei, she's my favorite.
EPISODE 02: One Ordinary Day
More Screencaps from Maria-sama ga Miteru 4th 02
So it's the day of the School Festival and Lillian Academy is abuzz with activity. Some helpless-looking dude stands outside the gate to the school. Another dude, Suguru (Sachiko's fiance), catches sight of him and grins. Meanwhile, within the school itself, Yumi and Yoshino are busy helping out at their class' booth. They're doing some sort of village theme and they are selling mostly food items. Also, two second year classes are apparently fused in order to come up with this.
Just outside the school, someone is checking her watch. It's Youko, waiting for Sei who arrives a moment later in a taxi. Youko chides her for being late and Sei apologizes then asks where Eriko is. Apparently, the third Rosa won't be attending the school festival in order to spare Yoshino the added pressure (Eriko has been pressing the younger girl to find a petite-soeur soon). Just then, Youko and Sei notice a suspicious woman who is trying to sneak into the school by climbing over the fence. They call out to her to stop her and startled, the woman falls off. Sei then grabs her from behind while Youko gives her a piece of her mind.
The woman introduces herself as Hosakawa Yuuko and says that she is a family member of a Lillian student. However, she doesn't have a ticket so she can't get inside. Youko gives her one of hers. While looking at the woman's face she wonders why she is suddenly reminded of someone. Back inside the school, Yumi notices Kanako off by herself, holding three tickets in her hands and looking troubled. But when Yumi asks what's the matter, Touko arrives, giving Kanako an excuse to leave. Yumi tells Touko that she will be visiting their class later, prompting Touko to hesitatingly offer to give her a tour. Then, Yumi treats Touko to some frankfurters but not without Touko trying to pay for them first. Just then, that girl from the newspaper club (I forgot her name) grabs Yumi and gets her to pose for pictures with Yoshino and later, Shimako, who is in a kimono. Afterwards, Yumi goes back to where Touko was only to find her gone. A student at the booth tells her that Touko left a thank-you message for the treat and this seems to make Yumi happy.
Later, Yumi bumps into a woman (Yuuko) who is looking for a telephone. Yumi misunderstands the word 'odenwa' (which means "telephone") and thinks that the woman wants oden so she points her to the oden booth. Inside the school building, Youko and Sei catch up to Yumi. At seeing the younger girl's face, Youko experiences an epiphany as she realizes that Yuuko's facial expressions remind her of Yumi's. Yumi again misunderstands and thinks that "Yuuko-chan" refers to a cat. Later, she brings the older girls to Sachiko's classroom only to find that her onee-sama has been called to the infirmary. While waiting for Sachiko to get back, Sei gets Yumi and Youko to join a game. Kanako also joins them but only in an attempt to avoid someone (Yuuko). Then, Sachiko appears and she immediately gets Kanako to come with her and Yumi to the infirmary. On their way there, Sachiko explains that there was a man there whom the nurse thought was her father because he was holding one of Sachiko's tickets. But Sachiko knows that it can't be her father since he is in New York for business and deduces that the ticket must be Suguru's. The man turns out to be Kanako's dad and Sachiko fibs, saying that he is in bad shape, in order to get Kanako to see him.
But he turns out to be alright. Upon seeing him, Kanako blows up and starts lambasting him about ruining her Yuuko-senpai's life. Then, as if on cue, Yuuko appears in the doorway, followed by Sei and Youko. Yuuko explains to Kanako what really happened: how she figured in an accident because of which she can't play basketball anymore. Apparently, Kanako's father went through the same experience so she turned to him for support, not expecting that she would end up falling in love with him. Kanako seems to accept this explanation and the two of them hug each other. Then Yuuko shows her the baby, Chikako, and gets her to hold it. After all this drama, Sachiko, Yumi, Youko and Sei are standing around in the hallway when Yumi remembers the DRAMA. Sachiko is way ahead of her, of course, and happily sends her off to see Touko's Amy in the Drama Club's rendering of The Little Women. Sachiko later joins Yumi in the audience.
After the curtains are down, Yumi asks Sachiko if she could be excused for being a little late for their own Yamayurikai's preparation for the Torikaebaya. Sachiko gives her the greenlight so Yumi is off to see Touko in the dressing room. Touko, however, is feeling very tsun as she points out that Yumi came to the show late. For her part, Yumi says that she came just in time to see Touko's big part in the play. Then, she urges Touko, who is still in costume, to give her the promised tour and the two of them run around the school and they're both glowing for some reason.
The Torikaebaya is a huge success. The audiences, Youko and Sei and Kanako's family among them, have a lot of fun. At the end of the day, a bonfire is lit and the students gather around, watching the flames. Rei and Yoshino as well as Shimako and Noriko are standing together. Yumi sits a little away from their group, watching it all, but later she is joined by none other than Sachiko. The older girl reminisces about how it was almost exactly like that one year ago when Yumi first became her petit-soeur: Yumi sitting by herself and Sachiko finding her.
The two take a walk down the school and end up at the foot of the Maria statue. There, Sachiko tells Yumi that she hasn't planned anything for their first year anniversary. She says that it's just an ordinary day for her, adding that it's ordinary because tomorrow and for the rest of the year Yumi is still going to be her petite-soeur. Not surprisingly, Yumi is turned on and starts ripping off her clothes moved to tears. They hug and Yumi sniffs and waxes poetic about how awesome her onee-sama is before said onee-sama gives an order that Yumi can't refuse. No, she did not ask Yumi to have SECKS with her. At least, not yet. Not until Yumi finds her own petit-soeur so they could have a threesome, the pervert.

COMMENTS:

That's Episode 02. It's odd but I don't really find the glowing effects all that annoying. On the contrary, I think the anime looks better that way. It gives a hazy look, lending an illusory appearance to an already illusory setting. It's so...Rococo.

As for the story, generic Marimite plot. Didn't Season One also start with a school play and a certain man-hater's trouble and coming to terms with the male population? Anyhoo, I don't dislike Kanako and I don't dislike her story, but the question about which one between Kanako and Touko is going to be Yumi's petite-soeur has long since been answered. Just look at the OP clip if you want an obvious clue.

Also, teen pregnancy. @$#%^*%????

Touko is still tsun over Yumi but it's cute. I keep waiting for the day when they show Yumi acting like Sei (I read this somewhere). Not because I want to see Touko molested (lol!) but because I'm curious about how it would look.

Sachiko is awesome in this episode yet again. Her entrance was just grand: a regular dominatrix with rape in her mind. But I have to say, the episode belongs to Youko and Sei. Just five minutes into the episode and Sei already finds a victim to grope. I am a Youko x Sei shipper. Is it obvious?
Sadly, I did not make this fanart. Courtesy of lawlessearth, rough sketches originally posted @ Garden of Maidens.